Mahahual, on the southern end of Quintana Roo state in south-east Mexico, has just 2,800 inhabitants. But each year more than a million tourists flock to what travel agents sell as one of the last remaining unspoiled paradises in the Caribbean.
Some residents now fear that “unspoiled” status is in jeopardy. The all-inclusive cruise company Royal Caribbean has unveiled plans to develop a huge water park in Mahahual, named Perfect Day Mexico. It could attract millions more visitors to the town.
Mahahual’s corals are a key part of the second largest barrier reef in the world, the Mesoamerican Reef . The reef is already threatened by rising temperatures and waves of sargassum , as well as pressure from visitors. The plans for a water park threaten to destroy mangroves and release reef-damaging wastewater, according to environmentalists.
“They don’t care about the environment, only the economic benefits for a few players in that destination,” says Guillermo D Christy, a water treatment consultant and president of SelvameMX , an environmental protection NGO.
Questioning the Cancún model Perfect Day Mexico promises an investment of nearly a billion dollars, and a boon for the local economy from an estimated 15,000 daily cruise ship visitors. But there are concerns it could simply replicate a type of tourism dubbed the “Cancún model”, which prioritises a large number of visitors by lowering prices.
Perfect Day Mexico is inspired by Coco Cay in The Bahamas, another beach club with a water park owned by Royal Caribbean.
When it announced the plans in 2024, Royal Caribbean promised “a modern and sustainable destination” and said it would be “caring for the planet [and] empowering communities”. Mara Lezama, governor of Quintana Roo, was quoted saying she would be “working closely with the company to ensure a sustainable destination that brings shared prosperity to the region”.
Perfect Day would overhaul the town’s Casitas neighbourhood and an existing cruise ship pier. Local opponents argue the town will be strained by the development and fear it will impact areas of ecological importance, including forests and mangroves.
The Caribbean coast of Mexico is known globally for its sun-and-sand tourism. This started half a century ago, with the construction of the city of Cancún on Quintana Roo’s northern coast.
Development in Cancún was replicated down the coast in the following decades; first Playa del Carmen and the island of Cozumel, then Tulum and now Mahahual. Most of these destinations are now connected by the Mayan Train. Recommended This spreading rapid development has prompted criticisms that the focus on all-inclusive holidays brings little benefit to some communities and contributes to environmental damage.
The Mahahual proposal is eliciting similar concerns. “The Cancún model failed along the coast and Mahahual represents Quintana Roo’s last chance for redemption. We cannot continue generating vast revenues for the Mexican federation [central government] at an excessive cost to the environment,” says Irma Morales Cruz, a lawyer with the NGO Defending the Right to a Healthy Environment ( DMAS ).
Residents’ resistance
Mahahual has grown on tourism. Most current residents migrated there from other parts of Mexico, or from further afield, for the economic opportunities as well as the beauty of the surroundings.
But many of those who arrived during earlier waves are set against this latest development, saying it is a big step too far.
One resident, who wished to remain anonymous due to tensions over the plans, told Dialogue Earth she belongs to the first generation of migrants who arrived in Mahahual in the late 1990s and early 2000s. She fears for the mangrove jungle, where toucans and tapirs live, saying it could be threatened by the arrival of so many more visitors.
The influx of new residents required for the development could risk changing the peaceful way of life in Mahahual that largely coexists with nature, she says. Not to mention, straining the town’s existing public services.
“Perfect Day will require approximately 2,500 workers to operate the project. This new wave of migrants arriving in Mahahual [won’t] care about the sea or nature, and they’ll soon start complaining about the lack of public services,” she says.
Another Mahahual resident, Luis Fernando Amezcua, arrived in town 16 years ago and works as a diving instructor and guide for ecological excursions. He says the plans he has seen for Perfect Day will not foster a connection to the local culture and environment, and do not properly balance society, nature and the economy.
Amezcua particularly fears the impacts on the ocean and coastal mangroves. He says the reef is already feeling the effects of tourism, climate change and sargassum. He is betting that popular resistance can prevent the park’s planned opening in 2027, despite the municipal and state governments modifying urban development plans to accommodate it.
Royal Caribbean has pledged to conserve 45 hectares of existing mangroves and protect the Mesoamerican Reef. It also promises to “safeguard native species, including sea turtle nesting sites, construct a new wastewater treatment plant and a solid waste treatment plant, achieve 100% green energy to power the site by 2040, restore impacted areas, and more”.
“Our vision for Perfect Day Mexico seeks respectful integration and a net benefit for the ecosystem,” the company tells Dialogue Earth. A researcher at work in the Puerto Morelos Reef national park, part of the Mesoamerican Reef (Image: Claudio Contreras / Nature Picture Library / Alamy) Benefits in question
Cruz says action on this pledge has so far failed to materialise. The company promised to carry out basic infrastructure work at a nearby housing project to support the community. According to Cruz, this has not happened. And she claims the application to use a patch of tropical jungle to facilitate the water park was pushed through without public consultation.
Royal Caribbean says changes to urban planning policy are a matter for local government. A spokesperson says the company “acted, and will continue to act, in strict and complete accordance with all applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations in Mexico. Every step of this process has been conducted with the utmost transparency and adherence to legal due process”. The company also said a waste facility and water treatment plant are planned, to support the community.
Greenpeace Mexico is also opposing the plans, arguing Perfect Day is part of an extractive tourism model that is unsustainable in the long term.
“We cannot continue to allow a handful of companies to enrich themselves at the expense of ecosystems and people,” Ornela Garelli, Greenpeace’s campaigns director, tells Dialogue Earth.
In its own environmental impact assessment, Royal Caribbean acknowledges the project could have a negative impact. It claims this will not be direct however, because the development would not lead to total habitat loss.
Greenpeace submitted its own, rival analysis to Mexico’s environment ministry (Semarnat). It claims the developer’s assessment “overlooks” the cumulative impact of large structures on environmental factors, such as water quality. A spokesperson says Semarnat is currently evaluating the assessment, and insisted it would “strictly” adhere to regulatory procedures. Greenpeace has raised concerns about the Mexican Caribbean biosphere reserve, located a stone’s throw south-east of the project site. The reserve is home to endemic, threatened and endangered species such as ocelots and spider monkeys, as well as white turtles that nest on these beaches. Greenpeace activists present environmental impact information about Royal Caribbean’s proposed Mahahual water park, Perfect Day Mexico, to representatives of Mexico’s Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat), February 2026 (Image: Consuelo Pagaza / Greenpeace) “Royal Caribbean’s environmental impact assessment is misinforming the community about the true impacts of Perfect Day,” says Garelli. “At the same time, the company has reinforced its commitment to social impact activities to buy people’s support, with gestures like cleaning sargassum from the beaches and building roads.”
Royal Caribbean says it has “planned significant and tangible investments in the community” and that its “actions to benefit the community are a demonstration of our long-term vision to be a responsible and value-adding partner, independent of any single project”.
In a letter sent to Greenpeace in March from Royal Caribbean’s CEO, Michael Bayley, he wrote that he recognised the concerns raised. He added that the company remains committed to “protecting the ecosystems and communities that make the Mexican Caribbean so extraordinary”, and is guided by “rigorous and evidence-based planning”.
The future of coastal tourism?
Juan Jacobo Schmitter is a fish biologist at Ecosur, a public research centre based in Quintana Roo’s state capital, Chetumal. He says the promised construction of a wastewater treatment plant could benefit the local environment.
But Schmitter also says the reefs and mangroves are suffering from sargassum seaweed blooms, which regularly blanket them in rotting vegetation. And many of the area’s fish species have not recovered from overfishing in the past. Wastewater from resorts and sunscreen from bathing tourists could pile on more pressure.
“This is already happening in places like Playa del Carmen, and if we add to that the increased presence of boats and tourists who damage the coral with their flippers, the ecosystem becomes even more vulnerable,” says Schmitter.
Roberto Herrera, an expert in aquatic ecology at Ecosur, tells Dialogue Earth the corals are close to collapse due to the combined effects of climate change, illegal fishing and sargassum.
“We would like to have boutique tourism: snorkelling, diving, sport fishing and jungle excursions,” he says, “but we’re stuck with the mass tourism of cruise ships that require an attraction like a water park.”
For now, many in Mahahual hope their quiet way of life will not be punctured by even more tourism. But local resident Amezcua says time is running out to protect this environment: “If we continue like this, in no more than 20 years there will be nothing left.”
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